Category archive: toys

May 16, 2013

It's For You: Creative Playthings Cardboard Phonebooth

I have this 1967 Creative Playthings catalogue lying around somewhere, but I swear, I never noticed these cardboard play structures until John from Wary Meyers pointed out these photos on a recent eBay auction. First, yes, a flatpack Creative...
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May 9, 2013

Japanese Kids Always Have The Best Cardboard Play Kitchens

It hit me a few weeks ago when DT reader and Cargo Collective guru Amber sent along the cover of Ishikura Hiroyuki's DIY cardboard furniture book, Papa, Mama, tsukutte!: damn, that is a fine and simple cardboard play kitchen!...
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April 14, 2013

Silverplated Miffy Bank

So I spotted these kind of awesome, silver Miffy banks in the NY Times this afternoon, and for a while, I worried the difficulty in tracking them down was because this Parisian jewelry designer Marie-Helene de Telliac has hoovered...
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April 8, 2013

Project OBJECT's Mid-Century Kid Sale At Fab.com

Remember last fall when that sweet, mime-lookin' Antonio Vitali puppet turned up? Well, he's back. And now he can be yours. Georgia-based design aficionado Aaron Cohen, who found the puppet, just launched a week-long, kid-design-themed sale at Fab.com, and...
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April 5, 2013

Kids Cardboard Lifestyle: The Cardboard Collective

Seriously, kids go through so much stuff, so quickly, it really all should be made of cardboard. And then it's like, seriously, just make that yourself. Which is a severe underselling of the awesomeness of Tokyo expat Amber's kids...
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March 29, 2013

Topaz Mountain Sleds By Dave Tatsuno & Bill Fujita

Dave Masaharu Tatsuno ran the dry goods store at Topaz Mountain, where Japanese Americans from the Bay Area were imprisoned during WWII. And he took a bunch of 8mm home movies, using color film which he'd pick up on...
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March 13, 2013

WHOA, ADO Ride-On Cars

Maybe you spotted them in the background of Agata's photos from the ADO Speelgoed exhibition in Apeldoorn, Holland. Or maybe you clicked through to see the rest of her pictures on her blog at Rafa Kids, including the one...
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March 4, 2013

Reversible Hello Kitty Hamburger Hello Kitty

This is what almost forty years without a mouth will do to a kitty. [via]...
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February 26, 2013

There's An ADO Speelgoed By Ko Verzuu Exhibition In Apeldoorn Until March 17.

Wow. You remember that amazing digital archive of ADO Speelgoed at the CODA Museum in the Netherlands? Well, there's an exhibition, too, and it runs through March 17. CODA (Cultur Onder Dak Apeldoorn) is in, obviously, Apeldoorn, in central Holland,...
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February 12, 2013

Do You Know Me? Wooden Mystery Bendy Snake

DT reader Michelle's brother recently scored this interesting-looking toy snake, and we've been stumped trying to figure out anything about it. Does anyone recognize it, either as a product, or perhaps a project/design? Or is it really just one...
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February 10, 2013

The Sonneberg Toy Museum Has A Scheißeload Of Renate Mueller Stuff

It's no surprise, I guess, that the Spielzeugmuseum Sonneberg, the oldest toy museum in the historic center of the German toy industry, would have a large collection of hometown heroine Renate Müller's designs. There are remarkably few of Mueller's...
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February 7, 2013

Barbie's Malibu Teardown

Barbie's listed her Malibu Dreamhome for sale with some reality TV broker, on the formerly somewhat credible real estate website Trulia, as part of a "year-long global branding campaign." Seriously, what a horrible piece of junk. $25 million is...
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February 1, 2013

This Creative Playthings Puzzle Has Been Buy It Nowed.

In the time it took me and K2 to return our Star Trek video this morning, a faster eBay shark than I snapped up this sweet 1970s wooden tray puzzle Fredun Shapur made for Creative Playthings. Which, technically, yes,...
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January 28, 2013

Ko Verzuu Made This Dollhouse

In 1927 Ko Verzuu made this dollhouse for the daughter of the director general of ADO, Dr. Willem Bronkhorst. It's pretty simple. I bet you could crank one out, too. Also, isn't 'poppenhuis' a fine word? Poppen-anything, really. Nice...
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January 27, 2013

Those Awesome ADO Blocks

Andrew from An Ambitious Project Collapsing is killing it on the ADO/Ko Verzuu collection-diving these days. Verzuu led design for ADO, a Dutch therapeutic/charitable organization that produced toys in the early 20th century. And apparently, one of Verzuu's sons...
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January 22, 2013

From Doll Library To Doll Hospital

Like any reasonable person, I despise American Girl dolls almost as much as I love libraries. Which makes this is a net positive story. [nyt]...
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Mama Mia, Santa Lucia! Baby Ferrari Bimboracer

Pencils down, gentlemen, we have a winner. Is the 1950s Baby Ferrari Bimboracer V12 somehow not the most incredible kid-sized car ever? Does it run on an emminently sensible electric motor at an entirely reasonable speed for preschoolers of...
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January 21, 2013

The Greatest Creative Playthings Kaleidoscope I've Ever Seen!

If the first half of the lifespan of Daddy Types is a documentation of all the kidstuff I've bought, the second half is about unloading it all on the next generation. And yes, this weekend feels like a milestone;...
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January 18, 2013

New York City In Alpaca Plush, By Oeuf

Don't get the wrong idea: considering that you can't actually buy the plush starchitect condo buildings real estate marketer Richard Pandiscio commissioned back in the day, Oeuf's new Empire State Building and Brooklyn brownstone are probably the sweetest snugglable...
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January 14, 2013

Sweet Creative Playthings Car, With Manual Choke

The eBay seller's right, you don't see these classic Creative Playthings hardwood cars in this nice of shape very often. And you don't see them with all the passengers, either. But I guess the original buyer of this example...
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January 8, 2013

The Impending Destruction Of The Planet, Or Chicco Rocking Eggplant

Your mind is altered a bit by traveling abroad. Also by getting up at 4AM, so you can get yourselves and two little kids to the Nice airport--two boxes set at opposite ends of a sadistic, disastrous traffic labyrinth--by...
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January 6, 2013

Resistance Is Futile: Circuit Playground Plush Toys Electronic Components

Maybe 2013 will be a good year after all. The super-friendly DIY electronics outfit adafruit has launched plushie plush toy1 versions of the little electronic component characters on Circuit Playground, their fun&easy electronics teaching app. Forget plush microbes and...
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December 25, 2012

Like-A-Pipe-Bike By Bruno Gavira

If you're looking for one more quick Christmas present project you can slam together in the garage while the cider's mulling, Spanish designer Bruno Gavira's got just the thing. It's a walking bike made entirely out of PVC pipe....
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December 21, 2012

Snap-Together Foam Alligator By Horst Diener

I'm not finding a lot of info--actually none--about this online, so I'll just float it out there. It's a covered foam alligator pillow/toy from 1968 by the German product designer Horst Diener. The six segments snap together in various...
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December 17, 2012

MONDO X Miami Vitali

"FLEA MARKET FIND"?? Mondo Blogo is just mocking me at this point, is what's happening. Miami Wrap-Up 2012 [mondo-blogo]...
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December 12, 2012

Cold Storage Philippe Starck X Target Banana Car

Speaking of expensive things made of cheap, yellow plastic: Here is a mint-in-box example of the acid banana-shaped ride-on toy designed by Philippe Starck for Target in 2001, being sold on eBay by someone whose business model seems to be...
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December 3, 2012

Bun In The Easy Bake Oven

An 8th grade girl is running a petition complaining that the girly purpleness of the newly redesigned Easy Bake Oven is discriminatory against her 4-yo brother, which will either make him all girly, or keep him from learning the...
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November 30, 2012

If You See Something, Play Something

Just in time for the holidays, a couple of Brooklyn fellas have debuted Commute, a giant, playable pegboard subway map of New York City. It's made locally from local, sustainable, blah blah blah plywood and stuff, and it looks...
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November 29, 2012

You Should Buy These Vintage Creative Playthings Blocks Before I Do

Seriously, this big 52-pc set of vintage Creative Playthings blocks, solid maple, in good condition, in their original box, for just $43 plus free shipping?? That's like $3.50/lb, cheaper than Froot Loops. Get on it, people! You crazy! Vintage...
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November 23, 2012

Shailer Park Kids Rocker

I stumbled across this in a deep Google search. and it's got interesting lines. But with that DIY-in-the-dark paint job and the handle being hidden/held on by a plastic bag, the Australian seller of this random, old kid's rocker...
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November 12, 2012

Tickle Me, Elmo Is 16 Years Old This Year.

OH, NOW ONE DAY LATER AND WITHOUT AN APOLOGY COMES A BIG OL' NEVER MIND. La la la la, la la la la Do you know who just turned 16 years old? Tickle Me Elmo! If you were only eight...
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November 5, 2012

A Large Company Is Opening A Store

And they would like you to know about it. By paying a firm to ask me to write about it for free. Yeah, capitalism!...
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Rock On, PlyPlay!

Any week that starts out with a new, handmade, small-batch, molded birch ply kid object is automatically guaranteed to be better than the week before it, hurricane, blackout, or no. So high five to St Louis dad/designer Jon Marten on...
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October 31, 2012

Do You Know Me? Antonio Vitali Hand Puppet

DT reader AC has me stumped, but maybe you know anything about this hand puppet, which seems to have been made by Antonio Vitali. Based on the tag around its neck, it'd seem to be from Vitali's own postwar...
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October 25, 2012

Hunter Alignment Model Car & Truck

Last week, I needed a new tire. So I ordered two. And then bought a set of windshield wiper blades. And an alignment. The only thing the fellows at the shop didn't try to sell me was the only...
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October 12, 2012

Parisian Playmobil Incubator

Sometimes you wonder if being the go-to blogger for European Spottings Of Random Playmobil And/Or Incubators is where you want to be in life. And sometimes, it's just nice to be understood, and to know people are thinking of you....
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October 10, 2012

Dip The Pinheads (Bowling)

These paint-dipped bowling pins are great, but really, they just remind me to check out Chigo again, which is still really one of the most amazing kid stores around. Even if their wooden toy cell phones are a little...
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September 21, 2012

Philippe Starck X Target Pop-up Playhouse

Now that's kind of interesting. It's five pieces of the springy, pop-up playhouse toys from Philippe Starck's short-lived, pop-up collection of baby gear for Target in 2002, all new in box. With three tunnels, and two tents, you could...
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September 19, 2012

Whoa Who Wha? Vitali Playforms Community Helpers

Antonio Vitali Community Helpers? I've never even seen Community Helpers. I thought that Vitali's awesome, biomorphic, carved wood Creative Playthings family was entirely self-sufficient. But no, they had help from, respectively: a Miss Clavell-lookin' nun, a guy carrying a...
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September 10, 2012

Wee Built This: Weerol Evolving Plaything

Santa Cruz dad Derek Perkins began working on the Weerol a year ago, when his kid was two. The design objectives: a goodlooking, high-quality toy that adapts to a kid's play patterns as he gets older, thus eliminating a...
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September 6, 2012

There Is No I In ABC

But otherwise, these lower case, wooden letters from Creative Playthings are pretty sweet. Also choke hazardy. Vintage CREATIVE PLAYTHINGS Wood Set of Toy Letters+BOX, currently $14 + 11 s/h, auction ends Sept 11 [ebay]...
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September 2, 2012

Bid/Buy/Build: The Creative Playthings Slot-Together Dollhouse Is By Roger Limbrick.

It's funny, all this time it's been an awesome icon of 60s American modernist kids design, and I'd never actually wondered who made the Creative Playthings slot-together, openside doll house. The answer, which Andy knew all along: British designer...
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August 28, 2012

Adorable Nordic Wooden Offshore Drilling Rig By Permafrost

Here is a beautifully made toy offshore drilling rig and supertanker and helicopter by the Oslo design studio Permafrost. I fear you cannot buy one, but when you look at it on display in the Louisiana Museum's exhibition on...
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August 27, 2012

Gilbert & George Puzzle

The British artist duo Gilbert & George produced this puzzle, Death After Life, for their 1987 retrospective, "Gilbert & George: The Complete Pictures," which started at the Palacio de Velazquez in Madrid. The pieces are actually just square tiles...
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August 20, 2012

Creative Playthings Truck, POS

One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong Can you tell which thing is not like the others, Before the auction's done? It hasn't reached "eames" levels of meaninglessness yet, but...
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August 19, 2012

We All Probably Missed Fredun Shapur's Creative Playthings Soft Blocks

Whoops, I guess I was on vacation and not checking ebay enough and thus basically missed this awesome set of good-as-new soft blocks covered with designs by Fredun Shapur. Not sure what your excuse is, but $16 seems mighty...
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August 14, 2012

From Il Archive Del Domus: Enzo Mari's Il Posto Del Giocho

Domus has reached into their archive for a nice story from February 1968 on Enzo Mari, modernist engineer. Mari had just launched his second toy, Il Posto del Giocho, (The Place of Games), which Domus called "the first known...
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August 13, 2012

Now We Know: Creative Playthings Lumber Tractor & Trailer

It's been a few years since I've seen one of these 2-by tractors turn up on eBay. And when the first one popped up, it wasn't clear whether it was by Community Playthings, the Mennonite-ish wooden toy and daycare/preschool/educational...
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Grandma Made Awesome Doll Furniture

So now we're at my mother-in-law's house in southern Utah, and the kids have prevailed on my wife to get down her box of dolls. Which turns out to include this awesome set of dollhouse chairs my wife's grandmother...
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July 27, 2012

Oh My Goodwood! Austin J40 Pedal Car Racing

Sir Stirling Moss himself will present the trophy at the inaugural Settrington Cup, the first race of Austin J40 pedal cars, to be held this September at Goodwood Revival. The two-day, two-part race will, I'm assuming, be held on...
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